MOSCOW -- Salt Lake City's chief Olympic organizer made an
extraordinary plea Wednesday for the IOC to consider Beijing's bid
to host the 2008 Games on its technical merits and not be swayed by
critics of China's human-rights policies.
Salt Lake Organizing Committee president Mitt Romney said the
International Olympic Committee should take advantage of a "very
unique time in history" when superpowers are at peace by helping
to open China to the world.
"The Olympics are about building bridges, not building walls,"
Romney said. "We should not build walls that block communication
with other countries, even if we vehemently disagree with their
practices."
Asked if he was endorsing Beijing's bid for the 2008 Games,
Romney replied: "It is an endorsement for giving full
consideration to Beijing's bid, just as any other bid, on its
merits."
The IOC is scheduled to vote Friday on the host city for 2008.
Beijing is considered the frontrunner in a field of five cities,
despite persistent criticism of China's rights policies from around
the world.
Just before Romney spoke at a news conference, police in Moscow
busted up a protest against Beijing's bid staged by Tibetan
activists. Several people were detained, including one journalist.
The news conference followed SLOC's regular progress report to
the IOC executive board, which included a groundbreaking proposal
to assure that all 2,500 athletes at the Salt Lake Games next
February undergo out-of-competition tests for banned drugs.
"We want to assure all athletes of a level playing field and
make sure that the cheaters have been caught," Romney said. "This
is a monumental goal that I feel would change the face of the
Olympic Games."
Romney is not an IOC member and has no vote or other formal
influence over the outcome of the 2008 vote. But his statement on
Beijing, coming unsolicited at the end of the news conference and
repeated in follow-up questioning, was an unusual step into Olympic
politics by a business leader who has helped right the Winter
Games' preparations in the wake of the IOC's worst scandal, the
million-dollar scheme to influence votes in Salt Lake's winning bid
for 2002.
It also was another case of American opinion on China being
thrust into the Olympic debate, following calls from Capitol Hill
and U.S. based agencies for the IOC to spurn Beijing because of
human rights abuses.
The other cities bidding for the games Toronto, Paris, Istanbul
and Osaka.
The demonstration, across the Moscow River from the trade center
where the IOC is meeting, involved 10 Tibetan demonstrators who
carried a banner showing five bullet holes in place of the five
Olympic rings.
Police detained several people, although no charges were
immediately filed. There were no reports of injuries.
On the drug testing plan, SLOC said it has asked Congress for $1
million to pay for tests of an estimated 500-1,000 athletes who
would not have been examined in the previous four months by their
national Olympic committees, sports federations or the World
Anti-Doping Agency.
Romney said the tests would be carried out by the U.S.
Anti-Doping Agency, which is responsible for all American drug
efforts. He said jurisdictional limits would have to be worked out
in some cases if tests were to be conducted at a training site
outside the United States.
"Our goal to test 100 percent of athletes is an ambitious
one," Romney said. "This has never been done before, but we are
convinced the tests are crucial to deterring the use of
performance-enhancing drugs in sports and creating a fair field of
play for 2002."
Noting that the federal government already allocates $3 million
for USADA work, Romney said the additional $1 million "would be
money well spent."
If Congress fails to fund the program, he said, SLOC would
seeking financing from the IOC, the U.S. Olympic Committee,
sponsors and its own budget.
Out-of-competition testing, rare until the last few years, has
grown rapidly, with 70 percent of national Olympic committees
conducting such random screenings. Out-of-competition testing is
considered a better way than in-games testing to catch drug use,
because athletes have no warning or timetable that might allow them
to cleanse their systems of the banned substances.
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